Where’s the Outrage?

Tuesday evening news Roundup

• I am not sure what we did by giving Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson $700 billion to spend. The stock market isn’t happy. The stock market fell approximately 5% today. So far in 2008, the stock market has lost 32% of its value. This is the worst loss in value since 1937. Want more dire warnings?  Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has hinted that the Fed may lower interest rates. I thought that low interest rates were one of the reasons we got into this problem!
• Hedge funds, on average, lost over 4% in September. Early trading in Asian markets looks like the bad news is going to continue.
• With the Food and Drug Administration looming over their heads, the pharmaceutical companies that make pediatric cough and cold remedies have voluntarily agreed to want that their products should not be used for children under four. Recent studies have suggested these remedies do not help young children.
• More bad news for the John McCain camp. New intelligence estimates suggest that sectarian violence could break out at any time in Iraq. In spite of John McCain’s proclamation that we have won, the national intelligence estimate states that “victory” is not certain. Of course, this should be obvious to anyone who’s paid any attention over the last five years.
• 17 Chinese born Muslims that have been detained in Guantánamo Bay for over six years have been ordered to be released by a US federal judge.
• One of the best heavyweight bouts is not being shown on HBO.  Wells Fargo and Citibank are battling over Wachovia. Towards the end of last week, Citigroup had stepped in to buy Wachovia Bank. From out of nowhere, Wells Fargo came up with a different and possibly better offer. An announcement was made that Wachovia would be sold to Wells Fargo.  Citibank filed an injunction. The battle is continuing behind closed doors. By the way, did you notice that Bank of America, the bank that bought Merrill Lynch and Countrywide, reported a 68% drop in their revenues compared to last year’s third quarter?

Tags: Economy, Iraq, National Intelligence Estimate by ecthompson
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When a President has died in office, many times it has been quite early in his term. This has often made a big difference in American history.

The first President to die in office, William Henry Harrison, expired just a month into his term. Harrison died in 1841. President Harrison, at 68 then the oldest President to to have held office, was a Whig. His Vice President, John Tyler, was a representative of the Southern planter class picked to help balance the ticket and not in full agreement with the Whig mainstream. As President, Tyler pursued policies, such as vetoing of a national bank, that greatly distressed Whig leaders such as Henry Clay.

President Zachary Taylor passed on in 1850 after serving just 17 months of his term. He was succeeded by Millard Filmore.

Abe Lincoln’s (above) 1865 assassination occurred just a month into his second term. His Vice President, Andrew Johnson (below), who had not been Lincoln’s first term VP, had very different views than Lincoln on Reconstruction, and how the South and Southerners should be handled after the Civil War.

Here is a stark difference between the person elected President and the person elected Vice President. The United States got one month of a great President and just under four years of a terrible one. And black folks got a century of Jim Crow.

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Tags: Election 2008, General by Texas Liberal
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